Feed for drill-spindles.



R. MILNE. FEED FOR DRILL SPINDLES.

APPLIUATION FILED MAY 16, 1911.

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L T B E H H T E E H s 2 f INVENTOR ITNESSES R. MILNE.

FEED YFOR DRILL SPINDLBS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 16, 1911.

1,063,572, Patented June 3, 1913.

2 SHBETS-BHEET 2.

WITNESSES INVENTOH m w w /64@ d f giys UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT MILNE, OF ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO ROCKFORD DRILLINGMACHINE COMPANY, OF ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

FEED FOR DRILL-SPINDLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 3,1913.

Application filed May 16, 1911. Serial No. 627,526.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT MILNE, a citizen of the United States,residing at Rockford, in the county of Winnebago and State of Illinois,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Feeds for Drill-Spindles, of which the following is a specification.

In constructing a drill press, means must be provided for advancing orfeeding the drill spindle at proper speed according to the work to beperformed. It is customary for this purpose to provide means for feedingthe drill spindle either automatically from some rotating part of thedrill, or by hand, as desired.

This invention relates to an improved feed for drill spindles, andparticularly to improvements in the hand feed for the same.

In order that the hand feed for a drill spindle shall be entirelysatisfactory, a number of important conditions should be met. One ofthese is that it shall be possible to secure quick manipulation inchanging over from automatic to hand feed. Such for example is the casewhen it becomes necessary,

or light pressure as desired. Furthermore,

the elements should be so arranged that the change from one reduction toanother can be made in the least possible time and with perfectassurance of bringing the parts into proper mesh. Another requirement isthat to change over from automatic to hand feed, it should be onlynecessary to drop the worm or feed shaft out of mesh from the train ofgears which leads to the rack on the drill spindle. The parts shouldalso be so arranged that when using automatic feed, the star handle maybe thrown into aneutral position, so that it will not rotate but willstand idle.

The main objects of this invention are to provide a new and improvedfeed for drill spindles by means of which two ratios of reduction fromthe hand wheel or star handle to the rack on the drill spindle may besecured; to group the lever which raises 1 and lowers the worm into andout of mesh with the gear in such relation to the star handle that bothof these elements can be manipulated from the same side of the drill,thus enabling the operator to drop the automatic feed and commence usingthe hand feed with the least delay; to use such a train of gears intransmitting from the star handle to the rack that a maximum strengthshall be secured; to simplify the gearing as much as possible;to sorelate the star handle and its pinion to the gear train and the clutchthat it may be thrown into an intermediate position where it will standidle when automatic feed is to be used; and in other ways and manners togenerally improve the construction of this class of mechanism.

Other objects and uses will appear from a detailed description of theinvention whichv consists in the features of construction andcombination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

Referring now to the drawings, Figure 1 shows a side view of a portionof a drill press looking at the right side thereof, and showing the wormthrown up into mesh with the worm gear as would be the'case when usingautomatic feed; Fig. 2 shows a front view of the mechanism of Fig. 1,the worm being still in mesh with the worm gear, and the star handlebeing thrown into intermediate position; Fig. 3 shows in skeleton thetrain of gearing which I use for transmitting from the star handle tothe rack, the star handle being thrown into clutch for securing a rapidfeed; Fig. 4 shows a section taken on the line &4t of Fig. 1, looking inthe direction of the arrows; and Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken online 5-5 of Fig. 4 looking toward the interior of the internal gear.

In the embodiment of my invention, I place the worm shaft preferably onthe left hand side of the drill, at which point the worm meshes with theworm gear. The latter drives the shaft carrying the pinion which meshesdirectly with the rack. Adjacent the worm gear, and preferably integraltherewith, I place an internal gear and then extend an auxiliary shaftthrough the frame to the right hand side thereof, the pinion of saidshaft meshing directly with the internal gear. The right hand end ofthis auxiliary shaft carries a star handle and 6. In its forward portion7 it is provided with the customary sleeve 8 and a rack 9 for raisingand lowering the drill spindle. The worm 10 is keyed to a worm shaft 11carried by an arm 12 which in turn is pivoted at a point 13. The armterminates in a finger 14 which may be raised and lowered by means of acrank pin 15 carried on a shaft 16 which extends through the frame tothe right hand side thereof. A handle 17 is provided on the shaft 16 forturning the 1 same into the position shown in Fig. 1 in which case anarm 18 also connected to the shaft 16 will engage a finger 19 to holdthe finger 14 in raised position, and thus maintain the worm in meshwith a worm gear 20. By releasing the finger 19, the arm 12 is allowedto drop and carry the worm out of mesh from the worm gear as illustratedin Fig. 4.

The worm gear is mounted on a shaft 21 and is keyed to the same, saidshaft in turn carrying a pinion 22 which meshes directly with the rackto raise and lower the same for the feeding operation.

The aforedescribed mechanism relates tothe customary automatic feed withthe exception that the worm shaft is placed on the left hand side of thedrill spindle instead of the right hand side thereof, as is customary.

Turning first to Fig. 3, I will proceed to describe my improved handfeed. On the shaft 21 and adjacent the worm gear thereof, 1 mount aninternal gear 23. In the construction illustrated, this internal gear isformed integral with the worm gear so as to secure a maximum of strengthin a minimum of space. The auxiliary shaft 24 extends through the frameof the press, and carries a gear 25 which is keyed to the shaft. Thepinion 26 keyed to the outer end of the shaft meshes directly with theinternal gear. A clutch block 27 is rigidly attached to the other end ofthe shaft as by means of a pin 28, so that when the star handle 29carrying a clutch face 30 is slid outwardly into the position shown inFig. 3, it will be clutched rigidly to the shaft 24. This being theease, power will be transmitted directly from the star handle throughthe shaft 24 to the internal gear, and thence directly to the rack.Therefore, when the star handle is thrown into the clutch position, arapid movement of the rack and consequently a rapid feed of the spindlewill ensue.

distinctly understood, however, that the pinion 31 and gear 32 are freeto rotate on, the bearing portion 33. A pinion is rigidly secured to thestar handle, so that when the latter is thrown over into the positionshown in Fig. 4, this pinion will mesh with the gear 32 and thustransmission will be effected through the gear 32 and pinion 31 back tothe gear 25 and the shaft 24-, and a. greatly reduced rate of drillspindle feed will be secured with a correspondingly increased pressure.

From an examination of the above construction, it will be noted that theshaft 24 will rotate at all times, when the drill spindle is beingraised or lowered, whether such raising or lowering be accomplishedautomatically or by hand. The star handle must rotate, in case thepinion 35 be meshed with the gear 32, or in case the star handle itselfbe thrown into clutch position; therefore, it is preferable that thestar handle should be thrown over into the position shown in Fig. 4,because in such position, it will rotate much slower than when in clutchposition. However, in my present construction, I have providedsufficient space between the clutch block 27 and the gear 25, so thatthe star handle may be thrown into an intermediate or non-operativeposition, as shown in Fig. 2.

For the purpose of maintaining the star handle in either one of thethree positions, I have provided a sleeve 36 between the pinion 35 andthe star handle proper, said sleeve being provided with three grooves37, 38, and 39. A finger 40 pivoted at 4] to the frame has its lower end42 suitably formed to engage any one of the grooves according to theposition of the star handle, a spring 43 holding the finger in suchengagement. It will be noted, however, that each of the grooves istriangular in cross section, the finger being correspondingly formed, sothat the handle may be forced out of any one of the three positionswithout the necessity of raising the finger by hand.

I wish to call particular attention to the fact that in my presentarrangement of feed gearing I have placed the handle 17 on the same sideof the drill as the star handle, thus greatly facilitating the changesfrom automatic to hand feed. In fact both the handle 17 and the starhandle can be im- -1nediately reached by the operator who manipulatesthe levers with his right hand. In order to effect a change, it is onlynecessary to depress the finger 19 so as to allow the worm to drop outof engagement from the worm gear and then the operator may immediatelycommence the hand feed by rotating the star handle. Furthermore, aninstantaneous change may be made from rapid to slow hand feed orvice-versa, merely by throwingthe star handle in or out on the shaft 24as the case may be. It will be noted that no matter whether the starhandle be thrown into clutch position, as shown in Fig. 3, or into backgearing position, as shown in Fig. 4:, the shaft 24 will always rotatein the same direction, so that the operator turns the star handle in thesame direction whether he desires to feed rapidly or slowly.

A study of the above described construction will reveal the fact that Ihave provided a hand feed for drills by means of which two speeds offeed can be secured, and that I have attained this result by the use ofa minimum number of gears and shafts. Furthermore, it is to beparticularly noted that the change from one hand feed to the other, thatis the change of gear ratio of hand feed, is effected merely by shovingthe star handle one way or the other as needed. I desire alsoparticularly to point out the fact that the lever which controls themeshing of the worm with the worm gear is placed very close to the starwheel, so that both mechanisms can be manipulated from the same side ofthe drill with the least delay. I also wish to point out the fact thatthe train of gears which I employ for transmitting from the star handleto the pinion 22 is one well adapted for securing a maximum of strength.The internal gear may be made particularly strong when it is combinedwith the worm gear, as herein illustrated, and this is a very importantfeature when it is desired to throw a heavy pressure on the drillspindle.

It will be noted that a star handle, such as is herein illustrated anddescribed, is so balanced that there is no tendency for it to fall ineither direction when not supported. Therefore, there is no tendency forone of the arms of the same to fall over and strike the operator, as isthe case when the lever handle is used, as is now customary.

I claim:

The combination with the rack of a feed for drill spindles, of a pinionshaft, a pinion secured thereon and meshing with the rack to raise andlower the same, an internal gear secured to one end of the-said shaft,an auxiliary shaft extending in a direction substantially parallel tothe said pinion shaft, a pinion on the said auxiliary shaft meshing withthe internal gear, a gear and pinion mounted free to rotate on the saidpinion shaft, a gear secured to the said auxiliary shaft and meshingwith the pinion of the gear and pinion, a clutch block secured to theauxiliary shaft, and a clutch hand wheel and pinion slidably mounted onthe auxiliary shaft between the said clutch block and the gear of theauxiliary shaft, whereby when the said hand wheel clutch block andpinion are thrown out the clutch will engage the clutch block of theauxiliary shaft to directly drive the same, and whereby when the saidhand wheel, clutch block and pinion are thrown in the said pinion willengage the gear of the gear and pinion to drive the auxiliary shaftthrough the medium of the gear and pinion, substan tially as described.

ROBERT MILNE.

Witnesses S. H. Rnox, H. LEEOH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

